Wind is a renewable energy source. Turbines or towers which use the kinetic energy of wind to generate mechanical energy, and convert the mechanical energy to electricity are known. Wind towers or turbines typically have two or three blades which may face into or away from the wind. As the wind causes the blades to rotate, the shaft in the turbine spins. The mechanical energy generated may be used to power certain tasks, like pumping water, or may be converted to electricity. When connected to a generator, the spinning of the shaft drives the generator which produces electricity.
Wind power has the advantage of being a free, renewable energy source. It also has the drawback of providing only intermittent energy. Wind towers take up a large amount of land and have recently been placed offshore. Offshore locations solve noise and sighting problems, but raise other ecological issues with support structure requirements. There remains a need to efficiently harness wind power and easily store it such that it the energy generated can be used whenever needed, with minimal ecological impact.
The open oceans are the greatest source of wind energy. The use of wind turbines on offshore towers, floating barges, and anchored hulls in order to generate electricity are known and disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2003/0168864 to Heronemus et al., PCT Application Pub. No. WO 03/076800 to Heronemus. U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,787 to Dederick, U.S. Pat. No. 6,294,844 to Lagerwey, and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2001/0002757 to Honda et al. These systems are limited in that they are not capable of self-storage of the energy generated and/or transporting such energy themselves by means of self-propulsion.
While some power generating crafts with self-propulsion are known in the art, they fail to achieve on-board storage, utilization and transport of energy in the form of hydrogen, for example as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,427 to Wiedemann. U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2002/0182946 A1 to Tanaka discloses a ship power plant which generates wind, in addition to solar and thermal power, to obtain electric energy and preferably store it in a battery. In one embodiment, Tanaka suggests the electric energy may alternatively be converted to hydrogen gas or compressed liquid hydrogen by electrolysis, and then the hydrogen and/or oxygen generated is sent to a land base by a transmitting system connecting sea base to land base. This system lacks the abilities of self-storage and self-transport of the hydrogen energy generated.
There remains a need in the art for a vessel capable of storing and/or utilizing the energy generated by wind and further capable of self-transport of the stored energy, without requiring transmission to a land base for use.